Mr. Speaker, I sat here listening to the opposition benches begging for the member for Winnipeg North to stop talking. I am a little surprised now that they want him to continue.
I was most curious about the notion that this is an omnibus bill. This is not an omnibus bill. The previous Conservative budget, which was 640 pages, and the one before that, which was closer to 750, had measures that were not even discussed in the budget documents and had amendments that were as far afield as selling embassies and cancelling the long form census. There were issues just stuffed in there, as if the ministers were instructed to find notes on their desks and stuff them into an omnibus bill and try to pass the legislation, regardless of whether there was a monetary impact.
Regarding the promise we made not to abuse omnibus legislation, all of us understand that budget bills contain all the measures in the budget and therefore are complex and often touch 30 measures.
The member likes to quote Churchill, but I will quote Stephen Harper. He said they would not present a budget that was not balanced. That is what he said. Every one of their budgets would be balanced, yet they failed to do that. They did not wait for the recession. They did it on day one. When the recession came, they really did it, and they never stopped.
Why did the Conservatives not ever balance a budget? What advice would they give us that we would possibly listen to?